Fifty-Nine More Banks in Mainland China connect to the Cross-Border Marketing Platform “U Plan” of UnionPay International

Facilitating recovery of cross-border tourism after the COVID-19 pandemic

2020-05-13

UnionPay International (UPI) announces today that it now partners with China UnionPay Data Services Co., Ltd. (CUP Data) to facilitate 59 banks in Mainland China to connect to U Plan, the cross-border marketing platform launched by UPI. These banks include Beijing Rural Commercial Bank, Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank and many more. So far, over 100 banks in and outside Mainland China have joined the Platform. UnionPay cardholders can now get e-coupons offered by overseas merchants and e-commerce businesses from the official mobile apps of these banks, and then enjoy substantial discounts.

U Plan is the first open cross-border marketing service platform launched by a global card organization. It connects multiple cross-border consumption service providers across fields of finance, tourism and retail, and provides services of geo-locating, accurate marketing and instant discounts for cross-border payment leveraging mobile Internet technologies. Since its launch in 2017, the Platform has facilitated tens of thousands of merchants across Asia Pacific and North America to provide special privileges to UnionPay cardholders, and over 160 institutions—banks, travel agencies and OTAs, Tech companies and airlines—have launched U Plan e-coupon dissemination function in their official channels.

During this special period of time, UPI are leveraging U Plan to empower more banks in Mainland China, helping enhance their service capacities to outbound travelers and access to a wider range of customers. UPI also help merchants to get more customers so as to facilitate recovery of cross-border tourism after the pandemic.

The multi-party cooperation model brings good experience to customers in and outside Mainland China, allowing cross-border consumption privileges more accessible and more transparant. UPI data show that more than 5 million U Plan e-coupons were disseminated in 2019. In the future, UnionPay will integrate domestic and overseas resources, building a unified channel through which both overseas and domestic e-coupons can be easily downloaded, and therefore establishing a more comprehensive privilege platform for cardholders.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, UPI has been partnering with many overseas e-commerce businesses via the U Plan Platform to meet customers’ online consumption demands. Nowadays, global UnionPay cardholders can use U Plan e-coupons to enjoy discounts offered by online malls such as Hong Kong Suning, King Power in Thailand and Chemist Warehouse in Australia.

In addition to the newly opened channels, UnionPay cardholders can also get U Plan e-coupons from the UnionPay app, the official website of UPI, mobile apps of banks such as Bank of China, China Merchants Bank, Industrial Bank, and Bangkok Bank (BBL) as well as well-known travel institutions like Ctrip and CYTS, etc.